One day while Willie was happily swinging back and forth on his trapeze humming Alouette (he knew other songs but he liked that one best), the sudden string odor of cheese almost knocked him off his swing.

      It came from the hole in the kitchen of the slum house.
      The smell was very strong. Willie gasped for breath.
      "They're trying to get me back there so they can knock my brains out," he said to himself. "Well, they won't!"
      He tried to bury his nose in his mattress to keep away the smell, but that didn't help. It became stronger and stronger. Willie found himself moving towards the hole. He realized that if he didn't do something fast the cheese would draw him through that hole and he'd be caught. He was gasping for breath. He was choking. And he was still moving towards that hole.
      On the other side of the wall Mrs. Mary Smith sat on a chair with a piece of cheese in her hand. Mrs. Smith wanted to catch that mouse with the strange-looking tail. She wanted to show her husband that she could catch that mouse, and he couldn't. She wanted to show her husband that he was no good, and she was going to prove it by catching that mouse. She placed the cheese on the floor and got up to get the mousetrap. She heard her children biting, fighting and shouting in the front room so she went to pull them away from each other, slapping faces right and left.
      Willie, meanwhile, was being driven out of his wits by the smell of that cheese lying near the hole. He made a quick dive into his pool and swam under water as long as he could but he had to keep coming up for air and the pong hit him each time.

Then an idea came to him and he knew that he was saved.
      "I've got to plug up that hole with something!"

      Breathlessly he rushed to the pile of crumpled paper notes, grabbed one, scampered down the wall without making a sound, and quickly plugged the hole.
      He took a deep breath and sighed with relief.
      There was no more smell of cheese.
      Mrs. Smith, in the meantime, returned to her kitchen, picked up the mousetrap, sat down on the chair and bent down to pick up the cheese. Then she noticed that the hole on the wall was plugged with something.
      "Now that's funny," said Mary Smith who was sure the hole had been empty a few moments before. She looked closer. She took a fork, got down on her knees and pulled at the paper. When she straightened it out she found herself looking at a ten-pound note.
      For a full sixty seconds Mary Smith stared at that ten-pounds. She then looked back at the hole. Then she picked up the piece of cheese and looked at that. Then she sat down and stared at the ten-pound note again.
      "It's a dream!" she whispered to herself.
      The piece of cheese dropped from her hand. Within three seconds the hole was filled again. Mary Smith rushed to close the kitchen door, rushed back, picked up the cheese and then pulled out what was filling that hole.
      Another ten-pound note.
      She prayed. She asked forgiveness for all her sins. She promised to be a good woman, a good wife, a good mother. She promised to live all the days of her life in righteousness. She promised to be patient, humble, forgiving, loving, unselfish, brave, noble, and a pal and buddy to her children.
      Then she dropped the cheese again and waited.
      Within a few seconds the hole was plugged again - but with a piece of plaster.
      Willie hadn't had time to go back for the paper to stuff the hole.
      Mrs. Smith prayed again. "I know," she whispered, "I was too greedy. It only works twice. Not three times. Please give me another chance tomorrow."
      She tool the plaster from the hole, put the cheese back in her cupboard and hid the two ten-pound notes in her bosom.
      Willie sniffed, smelled no cheese, grinned to himself, thinking, "They've given up," and went back to his trapeze.

That night Willie slept well, but Mrs. Smith didn't. She was waiting for the next day. And next day, at exactly the same time, she walked into her kitchen, quietly locked the kitchen door, carefully took the cheese from her cupboard and gingerly placed it near the hole in the wall.
      She waited.
      Nothing happened.
      "Perhaps I didn't do it right this time," she said, biting her lip nervously.
      She tried to do everything exactly as she had done it the day before. She sat down in the same place, put the cheese down in the same spot, got up to get the mousetrap, even walked to the front room and slapped all her children.
      But the hole remained empty.
      The hole remained empty simply because Willie was in Mrs. Pickering's kitchen. Willie finished his meal - and started to return to his dwelling place.
      At that instant Mrs. Smith saw that she was not sitting on the same chair! On the day before she had been sitting on an old broken-down chair with no back. She got that old chair and sat down and dropped the cheese - and it happened!
      Another ten-pound note filled the hole.
      Mary Smith almost fainted from excitement."I've got the secret! The chair! The old chair!" she whispered to herself, almost crazy with joy.

      She took the ten-pound note from the hole, sat down on the old chair again, dropped the cheese, and the hole was filled again.
      This time she could barely control herself. When she took the second ten-pound note her hands shook. She put the cheese away and tried to think about the miracle that was happening in her kitchen.
      "Twice a day, no more, no less," she mumbled to herself, in a hushed voice.
      In the meantime, Willie was rushing back to plug the hole a third time with another piece of crisp paper. He stopped and sniffed. No smell of cheese. "Maybe they realize they can't catch me that way," he thought, very satisfied with himself.

Next day Mrs. Smith quietly led her husband into the kitchen. "What do you want?" he asked gruffly .
      "You've got to see it to believe it," she said, "but once you've seen it you must promise not to tell a soul. God has answered our prayers. We're rich."
      "Have you been drinking?" asked Mr. Smith in a suspicious voice.
      "No," answered his wife. "Now watch," she said as she took a piece of cheese and pulled up the old chair and sat down.
      "The poor woman has gone off her head," thought Mr. Smith.
      He saw her bend down and take something from the hole in the wall. She gave it to him. It was a ten-pound note.

      Mr. Smith didn't say anything. His wife was still smiling. "See?" she said. "Now the hole is empty," Mr. Smith looked. Yes, the hole was empty.
      "Now," said his wife, sitting down on the chair and dropping the cheese again, "now watch."
      The hole was no longer empty.
      This time Mr. Smith got down on his hands and knees and pulled out the piece of paper.
      "How?" he finally managed to say, unable to believe what his eyes were seeing.
      "It's the old chair," his wife whispered. "That's the secret."
      Mr. Smith looked at the old chair, and then looked at his wife, and then at the ten-pound note and then at the hole. He couldn't figure it out.
      "It works twice a day," his wife explained. "No more, no less. It happened two days ago. I didn't want to tell you about it before I was sure it would work again. Every day we get twenty pounds. At the end of the we we get one hundred and forty. At the end of the month we get five hundred and sixty pounds!"
"And we don't have to pay any taxes on it," said Mr. Smith.
      "Yes," Mary Smith giggled.
      "How do you know it only works twice a day?" Mr. Smith asked.
      "I tried it three times and a piece of plaster was put there," she answered.
      "But how ...? Mr. Smith began again.
      "The Lord works in mysterious ways," said hi wife. "It is not for us to question."
      "Maybe we should tear down the wall and see what's behind it?" said Mr. Smith
      "If toy do you'll find nothing and the miracle will stop. This is how we must do it. The old chair, a piece of cheese, twice a day, no more, no less. If we're too greedy we'll get nothing," his wife cautioned.
      I still can't believe it," said Mr. Smith.
      We'll try it again tomorrow and you'll see," said his wife.
      Willie was very disappointed about having to keep on worrying about his safety.
      Next day came the familiar smell of cheese.
Willie filled the hole and stopped the smell.

      The piece of paper was taken away and there was the cheese smell again.
      Willie filled the hole a second time.
      The paper was taken away and there was the smell of cheese a third time!
      By now Willie was really fed up. He ran up the wall and peeked into the Pickering kitchen.

As luck would have it they were out taking a walk. "I'll hide in their kitchen until that terrible smell goes away. If the Pickerings come home, I'll just have to go back and stuff that hole again," thought Willie.

On the other side of the wall Mr. Smith was shaking his head, staring into the empty hole.
      "I told you!" shouted Mrs. Smith angrily. "It only works twice! No more, no less!"
      "It is a miracle," whispered Mr. Smith.
      "Why don't you listen to me sometimes?" asked Mrs. Smith.
      "I will," said her husband. "I will. From now on I'll listen to everything you say."
      Mrs. Smith picked up the cheese from the floor and triumphantly led her husband from the kitchen.
      Willie poked his head back into the wall and sniffed. No smell of cheese. "They've given up," he thought, jumping back into the wall.
      But the next day the smell of cheese came again.
      Willie filled the hole once.
      The paper was taken away and there was the smell of cheese a second time.
      Willie filled the hole twice.
The paper was taken away - and this time there was no more smell of cheese.
      "All right," thought Willie, accepting the challenge. "All right!. If that's the game they want to play, all right!"
      And so each day he plugged the hole twice, and each day Mr. and Mrs. Smith went though their ritual, and each week Humphrey cashed the cheque and Henrietta kept stuffing twenty ten-pound notes into the hole of her kitchen wall.
      And that was how the wall Willie lived in became a sort of bank and Willie a sort of banker.